Means for laying flooring.



R. A. STOEHR.

MEANS FOR LAYING FLOORING. f APPLICATioN FILED sPT.2o.1915. 1,2745953. Patented Aug. 6, 1918.

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MEANSFOR LAYING FLOORING. APPLICATION FILED sEPTQzo. 1915. 1,274,953. Patented Aug. 6, 191&

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femm for ROBERTA. sToEHE, or CINCINNATI, oHIo.

MEANS Fon LAYING FLOORING.

Speciication of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 6, 1918.

Application led September 20, 1915. Serial -N o. 51,612.

, To all whom t may concern.'

surfaces as cement or concrete floors, or

Beit known that I, ROBERT A. S'roEHR, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cincinnati, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Means for Laying Flooring, of which the followingis a specification. Y

It is the objectof my invention to providemeans for laying flooring upon such other surfaces not adapted to receive n ails or similar fastening means for the flooring.

-By the term flooring I. include wood, cork or composition flooring, such as jointed or tongue Vand groove iiooring, parquetry flooring, ooring for dwelling, oflice or factory'V use, or flooring of a similar nature.

In laying floorlng upon a surface not adapted for receiving nalls or-the usual se'- curing means for the flooring, it has'been a Y usual practice to irst lay wood sleepers upon the original floor and to lay the flooring upon such sleepers, and to secure the flooring `to such4 sleepers by nails driven Y, through the flooring into the sleepers.

In practiceit has been necessary Vto'use quite thick sleepers, four inches beingv a usual height whichsaid sleepershave eX- tended above the surface of the' original Hoon.' The result has been to raise the upper surface of the laid flooring so high above the surface of the original Hoor as to be extremely objectionable and at times making it impossible to Vcover the original floor' Withwood flooring.`

It is the object of my invention to provide novel-means whereby the woody flooring may be laid substantially directly-upon the surface of the original floor; further to provide means whereby the wood, flooring is held downwardly by means engaging vthe ooring frombelow, and theA invention will be further readilyunderstood from the following description and claims, and from the drawings, in which latter :v Y

Figure 1 represents a perspective View of a section of a floor being laid with employ-V thickness and the metal of the strips may be ment of my improved means.

the same taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 3.

laid is represented in Figs; 1,

Fig. 7 is a detail in longitudinal section on the line 7 7 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 8 is a vertical cross-section on the line 8-8 of Fig. 9 showing my improvement applied in laying parquetry flooring.l

Fig. 9 is a longitudinal section of the same taken on the line 9-19 of Fig. 8.

K Fig. 10 is a vertical cross-section on the line 10-10 of Fig. ll showing the securing means employed in laying Vjointed.flooring.

Fig. 11 'is a longitudinalsection of the same taken on ythe line l1'-11 of Fig. 10; and,l

Fig. 12'is a plan view of a section ofthe securing strip, showing the strip-tongue provided with securing holes;

The original supporting surface oriioor, hereinafterrtermed the floor, upon which the flooring is to be laid, is represented at 11, and is instanced as a concrete floor, walls being represented at l2. Theflooring being 2, 3 and 6, as tongue vand groove flooring, in Figs. 8 and 9 as parquetry flooring, and in Figs. 10 and 11 as jointed flooring.

Metal lsecuring strips 15 are provided.-

to be laid upon the floor and preferably eX- tend throughout the-*widthvor length of the room to beiioored, 'or of the floor upon which the flooring is to be laid. The securing strips are laid crosswise of the lengths of the flooring. y l f As an example, but not as a limitation, it may be stated that for usual seven-eighth inch'iiooring, these' strips may beV about one inch wide and about one thirty-second inch thick, although, of course, the Width and departed from Without departing from the spirit of my invention.

The strips may if desired be arranged to be lsecured to the floor, being preferably laid upon or secured directly to the Hoor so that practically nov4 height to the original door is added except the thickness of the flooring boards.' n i lVhen securing means are employed for securing the securing strips to the floor, they are preferably embedded in the door. Sugli securing means are exemplified as expansion bolts 20. The expansion bolts exemplified comprise the expansion members 21, '22, and bolts 23. The expansion members have spreading wings 24 provided with taperingends 25 coacting with inclined faces 26, the threaded shank of the bolt having threaded connection with the threaded member 22. The expansion members are received andv 'securelyv held in recesses 2:7 in the floor, the securing oi these expansion members in place being'obtained in. suitable manner, as by forcing the expansion members lengthwise one upon the other and toward each other, whereby thespreading' wings of one of the members are spread upon the inclined faces of the other member for bei-ngr spread against and crowding. into the. wall o'l the recess, the lower end of the, threaded shank of the bolt being, received in the extension 28 oi the recess. i The upper end of the associated eXpansion members is preferably Hush with the surface of` the floor.

Thev securing. strips are provided with holes 30 through. which the, shanks oi' the bolts are received when securing the strips to the floor, the strips being held between the nut-members of the. expansion bolt and the headV 31 oi' the bolt. The` bolts are ar-l ranged in suitable locations in the floor and with relation to. the strips,- in order to hold the strips in, place. and to hold. the tlooring to the floor when, the strips have been se,- cured to the floor.

The securing strips are provided with tongues 33 which are. arranged to be received in the joint between the proximate edges of `the flooringA These tongues are formed in the securing strip, the bases of the tongues being spaced apart in.. the strip distances` substantially equal to the width of the flooring employed, or so arranged that tongues are located at the. meeting points between the adjacent floorings boards.

ll prefer that thetongues. shallnormally lie in theE plane. ot the strip and be arranged to be raised intov contact with the edgey ot' the flooring when the flooring is. being laid. .For readily accomplishing this. li preter to provide a space 34. between; the. endi of; theV tongue and the adjacent wall of the opening 35l in which the tongue is formed. The sides of the tongue may be. spaced from the side walls ot thev Open-ing by spaces.. 36;

rlhe meeting-edges oiA the looring` are so4 formed that the upper edgesof thejoint will,

meet, while there is a space 37 between the lower ends of said edges, into which space the tongues 33 are arranged to be received, the space preferably tapering L ipwardly.

The lflooring illustrated in Figs, l to 3 inclusive is eXemplilied as tongue and groove {iooring having a face width instanced as two inches and a thickness instanced as seven-eiglrtlrs inches, this example being instanced as an exempliication and not as a llltallOiL In the exemplication, the strips'ma-y be laid on the, floor about two feet apart and the securing means for securing the strips to the Hoor, when such are employed, may be spaced apart Vsuitable distances lengthwise of the strip, the securing means. on adjacent stripsbeing alternately arranged, asA indicated in Fig. 1f.A

lnstancing my improxfed securing means.

ing is laid with its grooved edge outward',

way in which such.

opposite to the usual flooring is now'laid. The. securingk strips are laid on thev original floor, as stated, with the end 38 of the strip turnedupwardly, as shown at a.; The first flooring board preferably has its tongue removed?, its tongueless edge bein-g placed against theupturned ends 38, presenting the groovedA edge of the. board outwardly. rllhe strip-tongues 33 are thenbent upwardly, as by means r off ahatchet 39, as indicated at b, sov that the.v stripftongue shall extend upwardly-, for instance4 asv indi'- cated at c, the upper'end of' thetongue. thus lying crosswise of the. groove of the flooring board. i

I provi/de a. striking block 41, tor insta-.nce a steel: block, which` Eis provided with a tongue-.452. in. position similar to: the` position of the tongues ot the. iooring. rllhisA striking block is placed against the. upfturned tongue of: the securing strip, a blowas from the hatchet 39, upon the-strikingface 43 oli the striking block, causing the tongue 3 3 to enterthe groove of theiooringboard crosswise of the, lower wall ot the groovey for f holding the. ilooring board securely dfownwardly toward the securing strip. rEhe tongue i3-is preferably bent upwardly froml a point at its base.

'lfhe next flooring board is then similarly secured, the` tongue 'of the flooringboard entering the groove of the previously laid board and binding upon the strip-tongue. The strip-tongue is received' in thefspace normally located between. the loweredges of the meetingV faces of the boardl, andrbent across the lower walfl ot the groove for hold ing the flooring board downwardly, the end of the strip-,tongue being preferably received between the inner edge ofthe tongue of the .iiooring and the `bottom of the groove in the space 44, provided between said inner edge of said tongue and the bottom of the groove, the strip-tongue being pinched between the bot-tom of the board-tongue and lower wall of the groove. The provisions stated insure that the upper edges .of the joints between the boards shallmeet and form a close joint and the boards be held'down securely.

'If it is desired to lay a floor, for instance a factory floor, with flooring which has jointed edges, (see Figs. 10 and l1), that is, tongueless and grooveless edges,'the proximate edges 46, 47, of the flooring boards are preferably so formed` that there is a space 48 between the lower ends of said proximate edges, into which the strip-tongues 33 are received, so that the upper ends of said meeting redges ofthe boards may form a close joint. When laying flooring of this character, the strip-tongues are turned upwardly in mannerA similar to that shown when laying tongue and groove flooring, the Istrip-tongues being provided with holes 49. A striker block similar to the striker block 41, but having a tongueless contacting face for laying the strip-tongue snugly against the outer edge of the iiooring, may be eln-v ployed for fixing the strip-tongue in upwardly extending position, preferably with its base at the edge line of the outer edge o1 the iiooring board being laid, a nail 50 being driven through the hole 49 into the edge of the board for firmly holding the board to the strip and to the original floor.

When laying parquetry flooring (see Figs. 8 and 9), securing strips 15 having a less number of tongues may be employed, or a less number of the tongues in the strips may be used, as desired, boards of parquetry flooring being in practice a number of times the widths of usual iiooring boards and of considerably less lengths, the parquetry boards, indicated at 51, having their longitudinal edges provided with grooves 52 and their ends provided with grooves 53, inserttongues 54, 55, being inserted in the grooves 52 and 53 respectively.

The proximate edges of parquetry boards are formed to provide a space 56 between them at their lower edges, this space tapering upwardly.

The parquetry boards are laid similarly to the tongue and groove flooring boards. The strip-tongue isV bent upwardly and forced into the groove of the parquetry board, preferably by means of a striker-block 41, for firmly clasping the lower wall of the groove between the strip-tongue and the strip and securing the parquetry board to the floor.

The insert-tongue is inserted upon the striptongue and driven into place by suitable means, the strip-tongue being pinched between the insert-tongue and the lower wall of the groove. v 1

The end of the strip-tongue is preferably receivedV in the space 57 between the inner' tending through the lengthsof the backs of` the iooring. j v

p After the lay-ing of the floor has been com,- pleted, the upper ends of the turned-up'ends 38, 38a, of the securing strips are laid down upon the surfaces of the outer edgesof the outer-boards, as shown at d, at both ends of strips,-and nails 65 driven therethrough into the end flooring boards. For "additionally securing the outer edges of the outer iiooring boards to the original floor, finish- Y, ing strips 67 may then be nailed by nails 68 over the joint between the outer ed es of the flooring and the walls 12, covering t e downturned ends.

In laying the securing strips upon the original floor, they are preferably laid so as to be stretched across the floor. My improved securing means secures all of the flooring boards to the strips from below, holding the flooring boards downwardly and resisting rise of any flooring board or boards. Any rise of the flooring laid is further counteracted by the stretched condition of the securing strips and the tension upon the strips which would be exerted by any tendency of the boards to rise.

My improved securing means further provides means whereby, while the flooring is laid so as to raise the surface of the laid flooring above the original Hoor substantially only to the extent of the thickness of the flooring laid, still the. thin securing strips insure a very slight space between the original floor and the flooring laid, providing an air space comprising said slight space and the recesses in the backs of the flooring, and forming an insulating space to insulate the flooring from the original floor for resisting transference of moisture and cold and resisting rotting of the flooring laid.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. In means for laying flooring, the combination with a floor of the character described to be covered, a wall, and tongue and groove flooring boards, of metal strips of the character described laid in spaced-apart relation, with the ends of said strips at said s remets walls `turned lupwardly7 said {iooring laid With its groove-edges outward said strips provided With tongues extending upwardly into the .joints between proximate 'flooring boards and secured in said joints, .with said ends of said strips bent downwardlyabove the flooring, and ymeans for securing said downwardly bent endsin downwardly bent relationi l 2. In means for laying flooring, the eonrl i said securing strips provided with receiving means for (receiving said securing ineens, and said securing strips provided with tongues normally lying Ain the plane of said securing strips and arranged to be bent out of said Genies M thtalpatent may be abta'ln'ed lser plane :torjbein-g received in said spaces 'be'- tween said lower 2porti'o11s of saidfproximate' edges of said flooring-'fhoards..

.In vmeans. for .laying flooring, the yCormbination with r the supporting surface, of flooring-boards 'w hose ,bottoms are. provided with recesses, said `iooringfhoards laid edge to edge, and flat metalseeuring strips provided With tongues normally in the plane of the body of said strip registering V`vWit-h said edges and with apertures registering with said recesses, seenring meansreoeix'fed in said recesses and through said apertures ffor securing said securing 'strips to said supporttween the proximate one of said edges, and holddown rneai'is at said tongues.

In testimony whereof, have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two vs-ufbserihing Witnesses. l f

ROBERT A. STOEHR.

Titnesse'sz Y PAL G; CoNNoLLY, THERESA M; SILBER.

rive cen-rs each, by afwegen@ Athe emmissener-:ef ramera *CJsiringtom 1m LG.

ing surface, saidtongues bent upwardly 

